Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-05-27
Che Essex County 9eraIa.
MEMORIAL DAY.

than it ever has been. IL is fitting
that it should be so. 1t is now more |
than a quarter Of century since the !
loyal men Of the nation flew to arms
to suppress the rebellion of the South
and to preserve the Union in its in
tegrity. The boys of 1861 are gray
haired men today, but they can re-
member the mighty wave of patriot
ism that swept over the land when
the flag of our nation was fired upon
by the disloyal forces.
But a generation has grown up
since then to whom the war for the
Union is not the living memory that
it Is to all who were past their child
hood when the mighty struggle be-
gan. The time has come when Dec
Grafton Day is no longer entirely a
day to be devoted to those heroes
who gave up their lives that the ma
ton might endure-who died in the
midst of the fight, or of ghastly
wounds there received, or in loath-
some prison pens, or in the crowded
wards of the army hospitals of dis
ease contracted in the line of duty,
or who have gone to the grave since
then from the effects of old wounds
or of hardships suffered during the
great struggle. The younger gen.
Grafton needs to have it made day
on which to recall the memories of
the causes, of the progress and re-
suits of the war itself. Our boys
and girls need to be taught lessons
of patriotism. They must be taught
that the cause in which their fathers
suffered and died was a just and
holy one, and that they reap the
benefits of the struggle in the in
herltance of an undivided country.
The lessons of the battle years from
1861 to 1865 will be lost unless our
children are made to value the heri-
tage won by blood and death, and
to take that pride in their native
land and it's free institutions which
is the foundation of patriotism.
The more necessary is this setting
before them in a clear light the ma
ture and cause of the war, because
there is growing effort to reverse
the facts of the case in the minds of
the younger generation. We do not
mean that it is proper or needful to
revivify the hatreds of the past; yet
nothing is more true than that VIC
cannot think worthily Of our Union
dead if we keep not in mind the ex.
act questions which they settled
Anything less than this makes tho
ceremonies of Memorial Day but {
sentimental farce, and the march oil
the rapidly thinning ranks of oul
veterans a worthless parade Of
death. Brave men fought, and We
honor their bravery; but let not thai
for which they fought be forgotten
There is, for instance, a strong feel
ing among the people of the South
that the war was not rebellion;
but it is misuse Of words to declare
that it was not. The perniciou
doctrine that the constitution wa
but compact between states, which
might be abrogated by any one o
them at its pleasure, by secession
from the Union, is the argumen
that these men use to justify thei
dislike of the terms "rebel," ant
"rebellion." Yet the right of Sc
cession was denied by the people O
the rest of the country, and the wa
settled it. Our Southern brethren
put the matter to the arbitramen
of the sword, and the verdict wa
against them. If the war settlet
any question, it settled the fact tina
the Union is indissoluble by peace
full means, and that the doctrine o
secession is erroneous. Hence
settled the status of those who too
up arms against the nations life
They were rebels; the war was re
bellion. Had the South succeeded
these same men would not have oh
jected to calling the struggle 9th
Southern revolution" An unsuc
cessful effort at revolution is rebel
lion, and all the logic in the worl
can not change it.
The South cherishes the memorie
of the dead who fell fighting for he
cause-a cause whose defeat the ma
jority of her people today do no
Ieplore, because they recognize tha
it is better for the country, and es
pecially for the South itself, that j
did not triumnh. Let us. Their